At the Technology Transfer Agreement Ceremony held at the UNIST campus, from left are, Chi-Yoon Lee (President of Deokyang Energen Corp.), In-Yup Jeon (School of Energy and Chemical Engineering), Jong-Beom Baek (Interdisciplinary School of Green Energy), and Moo Je Cho (President of UNIST).

UNIST Comes to Prominence as Global Graphene Leader

Paving the way for cost-effective mass production of graphene

On January 20, there was a signing ceremony of Strategic Cooperation Agreement of a Mass Production of Graphene Technology Transfer between UNIST and Deokayng Energen Corp., held at UNIST.

Under this agreement, the technique of mass-production of graphene will be moved to Deokyang Energen Corp. and will be widely used for commercial applications. The value of this technique is about $900,000 USD and 1.5% of total gross, created from this technique will be also added to this value as a license issue fee.

This is an exemplary case of creative economy,” said President Moo Je Cho, UNIST. “We will conduct additional R&Ds so as to pave the way for cost-effective mass production of graphene within the next few years.”

Deokyang Energen Corporation is Korea’s largest hydrogen producer and since its foundation in 1961, it has been producing high quality industrial gases for about 41 years.

Chi-Yoon Lee, President of Deokyang Energen Corp. states, “Once mass-production of graphene is commercialized, it can be used for various purposes and this will become one of the most major breakthrough in graphene research in history.” He adds, “We anticipate that by 2030, this technology will surpass $600 billion USD in market value.”

Graphene has become a rich topic to explore by many materials scientists and engineers, as well as chemists and physicists worldwide due to its exceptional properties. However, the main issue that scientists are faced with is the obstacle of producing high-quality graphene at a mass production level. Although researchers have been hard at work to develop methods of mass producing graphene for years now, current graphene synthesis method is harmful to environment and its complex process hinders mass production of graphene.

A team of researchers, led by Jong-Beom Baek, Professor and Director of the Interdisciplinary School of Green Energy/Low-Dimensional Carbon Materials Center at UNIST has pioneered a new method of producing large quantities of edge-selectively functionalized graphene nanoplatelets (EFGnPs). This new method uses dry ball milling approach to grind graphite in the presence of corresponding gases. It is simple, yet cost-effective, environmentally friendly, and most importantly, safe to use.

This research has been funded by the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning (MSIP) of Korea, under the project to support leading researchers. “We expect that this discovery will accelerate the commercialization of graphene,” says Prof. Baek.